Masahiro Sakurai will oversee Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC remotely

The continued development of many games and their DLC has been in question since the coronavirus outbreak became a pandemic in March. Due to how the disease spreads, health specialists and governments have advised the world’s population to engage in what is being called social distancing.

Organizations with the capacity to do so have transformed their staff into a remote workforce, and it would appear that Nintendo has joined the list of companies to do so. More and more development studios have adopted this approach, such as CD Projekt Red, Bungie, and Kojima Productions. 

In a recent tweet, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai announced that he will now be overseeing the development of the game’s DLC remotely (thanks Siliconera). Despite the difficulties this will present, he and the team have no other choice but to continue their work in this manner until the foreseeable future.

The news isn’t much of a surprise though, as Sakurai did mention last month in an interview with Famitsu, that development could be delayed. However, he and his team were able to tease the next DLC fighter in the latest Nintendo Direct. Speculation is still high, while fans try to determine which ARMS character will be joining the roster, but we won’t be getting any official confirmation until June 2020. 

Sakurai working remotely is far from the worst thing that could happen to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighter Pass 2. At a time when game releases are getting delayed indefinitely, and the health of millions is at stake, this is an acceptable compromise.